It is a black granite - and it has sparkly bits in it... I can't remember what they called it though... sorry. We have it everywhere in the kitchen - looks great but it is a lot of work to keep it clean looking. We're about to have it stripped and sealed again after the holidays - goodness knows how much that will cost - but we've been in the house 7 years, so I guess it's all ok...

it is proteins in the salt-water from all the life in it... the wave action when it is rough causes the proteins to form a stiff foam - this is what us saltwater hobbyists do with a "protein skimmer" - we pour massive amounts of bubbles using needle-jets into a column of water - the foam forms and pushes up the column, rising over into a collection cup, where we let it "pop" - back into a liquid form, so we can remove the icky stuff from the aquarium... I'll post a photo.

This is a salt-water tank protein skimmer - the pump with the white hose pushes large amounts of water into it - a vortex pulls air into through the gray elbow valve - you can see the columns full of bubbles with a lot of "muck" at the top where the collection cup is removed - inside the cup the foam continued up through a hole in the middle and spilled over into the clear sides where it bursts back into a liquid form of pure muck... that muck flows down the tube into a gallon milk can I have inside a bucket (in case it over-flows - you don't want this stuff on the floor but it has never happened to me - I just heard horror stories) - and I empty the gallon jug, remove the cup and clean that and the entire skimmer about once every two weeks.

I've actually started dosing my large tank with vodka at the moment to encourage bacterial growth which will make the skimmer remove more muck from the water - better water quality means better color and health for the corals and fish.... been a week but I'm about to double the vodka dose...

This is a salt-water tank protein skimmer - the pump with the white hose pushes large amounts of water into it - a vortex pulls air into through the gray elbow valve - you can see the columns full of bubbles with a lot of "muck" at the top where the collection cup is removed - inside the cup the foam continued up through a hole in the middle and spilled over into the clear sides where it bursts back into a liquid form of pure muck... that muck flows down the tube into a gallon milk can I have inside a bucket (in case it over-flows - you don't want this stuff on the floor but it has never happened to me - I just heard horror stories) - and I empty the gallon jug, remove the cup and clean that and the entire skimmer about once every two weeks.

I've actually started dosing my large tank with vodka at the moment to encourage bacterial growth which will make the skimmer remove more muck from the water - better water quality means better color and health for the corals and fish.... been a week but I'm about to double the vodka dose...

Males perfect sense!

I owned a saltwater tank myself for yrs and also had the skimmer which does just what you describe. Never related that action on such a large scale.

I've actually started dosing my large tank with vodka at the moment to encourage bacterial growth which will make the skimmer remove more muck from the water - better water quality means better color and health for the corals and fish.... been a week but I'm about to double the vodka dose...

Wait, what??? Are there fish in the tank or do you remove them first?

How can you tell a drunken fish?

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MatWiz"The greatest thing about the internet, is that you can quote something and totally make up the source." - George Washington.